Notify whistleblowers’ protection act, demand activists

February 8, 2017

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New Delhi, Feb 7: The Citizens Whistle Blowers Forum here on Tuesday demanded that the concerning act which is to guarantee the protection to the whistleblowers be notified by the government and bring into effect. “It is crucial for transparency that the Bill be notified and the amendments which were proposed in it, and are retrograde in ture, be not introduced,” Prashant Bhushan, senior advocate and member of Citizens Whistle Blowers Forum, told the media. The Whistleblower Protection Act was passed by both houses of Parliament in 2014, but the government is yet to notify the act and bring it into law citing pending amendments which it wishes to introduce. Under the proposed amendments, a whistleblower “must not provide information which is exempted under Right to Information Act” and thereby if he blows the whistle on such bodies he or she will be “liable for prosecution under the Official Secrets Act”. The forum also demanded that a committee be formed to which all such individuals may inform of any misdoing within their organisation. The committee in turn can guarantee anonymity and protection to them. (IANS)